Gardening and women's rights?

[SuperLoudPoppingAction]

There are three things keeping me relatively sane at the moment. One being discussion with like-minded women who are passionate about women's rights, another being (surprisingly, as I am dysphraxic and a bit crap at it) swimming.
The most reliable, though, is being out in my garden. I love being in nature generally. If I had more energy I'd like to go on walks more, but I've been fairly knackered lately.

The cyclical nature of planting, growing, harvesting etc feels very significant to me.
Also, the fact that I can make mistakes and that everything will still basically be ok is so lovely. It's an antidote to anxiety that I feel with loads of other stuff.

I've had such lovely conversations with women about gardening. One woman gave me some of her tiny gooseberries from her allotment and I made chutney with them. Another woman told me that parsley only thrives in a household run by a woman.

Alice Walker talks a lot about gardening. alicewalkersgarden.com/2010/10/in-search-of-our-mothers-garden/
Susan Brownmiller [[http://www.nycitywoman.com/the-feminist-gardener/]]
I love this as well. www.slate.com/articles/double_x/doublex/2015/03/margery_fish_s_we_made_a_garden_is_a_feminist_manifesto_disguised_as_a_gardening.html
"a harmonious, informal, frothing sort of a garden, its borders filled with “green” flowers, its shady corners crammed with hellebores, primroses, epimediums, and, most important of all, her beloved snowdrops."

I keep thinking about how important it is to experience a Space of One's Own. Even if it's a terrarium with a couple of air plants in it (like in my last house, where the garden was not private enough for me to enjoy it).

It's not going to revolutionise gender politics in itself, but is nurturing a connection to nature something that anyone else connects with feminist politics?

Yabvu langcleg about the idea of a rhubarb glut. No such thing. The juice is so lovely in gin with cloudy apple juice.

I have planted some but it's currently 3 teeny spindly bits. No chance of eating any this year I don't thing even if it survives.

I'm currently wondering what would grow under a walnut tree because I want one soo much.
Rhubarb is categorized as an emo plant (likes the dark) so it was on my list of potentials.

I love gardening. I'm mad about wild flowers and creating a garden that attracts beneficial insects. I looked earlier at everything in bloom and felt really accomplished

I've been into gardening since I was little so no way would I accept any mansplaining about plants. DH helps with "large things" but has no interest.

I feel connected to nature this way. It's odd but I can get a vibe about a type of plant eg

Where it would do well
Whether it would be attractive to slugs
How much water it needs

I can spend all day out there and sod the world

Yabvu langcleg about the idea of a rhubarb glut.

LOL! Hugh Fearnley-Thingummybob usually gets right up my nose but he's very good on multiple uses for rhubarb!

Can I join in too? I find feminism difficult in real life. I have no friends or family who share my views. I find reading without being able to do anything positive makes me feel down and I almost want to slip back into ignorance of the issues so I don't have to face them and think about them. The garden always lifts me up. I am still only a beginner and have young children which means I can't devote much time to it. My mom is a gardener too and I feel like we've found a new way to bond and be connected. I know exactly what a previous poster meant about watching the birds. When my depression was at its worst I didnt move much and often felt like the walls were closing in on me. Sitting near the window and watching the birds reminded me that the world was still carrying on out there, no matter how bleak and hopeless my internal world seemed. I no longer struggle in the same way but feeding and watching the birds makes me feel content and connected to the world.

I do quite like his fruit book.I haven't read many books by men at all since about 2010 but cook books are sometimes an exception.

I have a tree in my new garden which is looking like maybe a damson or possibly plum tree. I wonder if he has made pronouncements on damsons. I can only think of jam. It's a good tree though. I rescued it from some rude ivy with personal space issues.

Thanks lass, but they only seem to be medium or large. (Probably it's sizeism more than sexism. )

I shall report back if the ones I've ordered from amazon do the job for small person versus big brambles.

Damsons are lovely in a crumble.

I've been into gardening since I was little so no way would I accept any mansplaining about plants.

Get an allotment. They cannot help themselves. I usually bark stuff back at them and they scuttle off but the next week, they will just try it again.

My best was 2 weeks ago, one came around my car [which I park to block them from wandering over] and started to say something and I just said 'Not tonight, I've come here for some peace and quiet'. He hasn't been back thankfully. Tosspot.

Splandy I know how you feel with regard to struggling to find people in everyday life who share feminist values. I think one of the attractions with nature is the uncomplicated nurturing role - no backchat etc. You nurture, feed, weed etc and the plant/animal simply responds with growth. In a complicated world it's so compelling.
I am also motivated a bit by the whole survivalist thing. Theres a name for it which I cant remember. I think that for me has to do with being a mother and feeling responsibility for your child and fear for all the things that can and do go wrong in the world.
In terms of producing a glut and an easy first plant you cant go wrong with chilli peppers.

I have found my people!

Love time spent in my garden. I find it very soothing and there is still something quite magical about the process.

My aim when my daughter is grown up and moved out, is to create a medieval physic garden. Herb lore from that time fascinates me and the garden was very much part of the housewife’s domain.

I love a good chat about gardening. All the women in my family love gardening and it's part of how we bond.

You nurture, feed, weed etc and the plant/animal simply responds with growth. In a complicated world it's so compelling.

This is exactly it.

Oh my goodness!

I've had allotments for the last 8 years. I've always commented on how men and women garden very differently. The men on site tend to approach it like a job, it's all rules, straight lines and ruthless discipline. Women tend to have much more fruit and variety, unruly flowers, clemetis growing up a fence for the hell of it, and they are much more ready to experiment with new fangled ideas like lazy beds.

I'm a bit shocked to see how closely this aligns to Margery Fish. I must get that book!

Well done for standing your ground, terfragette!
Allotments being so blokey really put me off. I know quite a few women who were run off them for not keeping them neat enough. I expect in reality the men didn't like a woman there who wasn't hanging on their every word

www.unwomen.org/en/news/stories/2017/2/feature-in-el-salvador-rural-women-plant-seeds-of-independence

I quite like the idea that when I'm in the garden trying to encourage food to grow, I'm doing something that women do all over the world, sometimes overcoming huge obstacles.

Thanks lass, but they only seem to be medium or large. (Probably it's sizeism more than sexism. )

The website actually says the sizes are small and to go a size down from your usual size ! My hands are small.

I grow lots of things, not always by design, in our unruly garden. Have enjoyed collecting herbs from the herb beds (grandiose term) to cook with tonight. I love seeing the bees in the garden. A lovely and timely thread - love the book recommendations as well.

What a lovely thread. I've spent the afternoon at the garden centre and then pottering about in my garden too. I've really started to enjoy gardening in the last 10 years or so. Waiting for my gooseberries to ripen now 😄

I kill houseplants (not on purpose) and I am hopeless in the garden, but this thread is a delight, and I feel inspired! Living vicariously. All I grow is hydrangeas but they seem to know I love them dearly and always bloom beautifully. I will enjoy looking at all the links and imagining all your lovely gardens and allotments. Great post OP

Im loving this thread.

There's a theme park in France, near Angers, dedicated entirely to the native plants of the Anjou region. It's called Terra Botanica.
You can go on a boat ride surrounded by hydrangeas and listen to stories about them. I'm not sure how they get around the fact they aren't native. But it's very lovely.

It's possibly the frenchest theme park I've ever been to. We bought plants as souvenirs.

I'm not v good at houseplants but dp is a houseplant whisperer. She's magic at working out which one needs more light and which needs more water.

Gardener's Supply and a few other suppliers have rose gloves/gauntlets in extra small. Shipping is very expensive though. Gardening gauntlets are easy to find here because we are blessed with giant mounds of Himalayan blackberries.

My grandparents were avid gardeners. For many years it was my job to go to the top of the pear tree to collect the ones the ladder would not reach. I am still bad at digging despite a lifetime of practice.
Some years ago I came home from the hospital unable to walk unassisted after renal failure and gardening was the sum and substance of my rehabilitation. Gardens are every way splendid whether for resting or working off a temper.

I love my allotment. Have a fruit cage there with 4 Apple cordons with strawberries underneath and 2 blueberry bushes. Also potatoes onions celeriac mange tout broad beans and French beans

Ah, found them, lass - for some reason on a different page to where the link sent me.

Other people's gardens are good for resting in but I never seem to manage it in my own - there's always something that needs doing. Summer evening deadheading pottering is pretty relaxing at least, and when many of the plants are most fragrant. I used to take DD out in her PJs to have an evening sniff. And sometimes a subversive-feeling run around in the twilight or dark.

What a lovely thread.

I finally managed to move out to the sticks and now have a lovely garden, with fields and woods all around. The urge to be surrounded by 'green' felt almost primeval.

I hope this link works - 'From Gardens Where We Feel Secure' by Virginia Astley.

Beautiful album that helped with the longings